Mining Around Tombstone

I did a post about mining in the Grand Canyon in northeastern Arizona:
http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/09/mining-at-grand-canyon.html

I did a post on mining in the Mojave Desert in northwestern Arizona: http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/09/mining-in-mohave-desert.html

This one is about mining in southeastern Arizona around Tombstone.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like inside and silver mine in the 1800's?  Mighty tough on the knees and the back and the hands...

Notice the candles at the head or hand of each of the miners.

Notice the miner on the bottom right.  He's sitting on a crate of some kind and has four candles in his back pocket.  I'm thinkin' he must be a top dog because it was MY understanding that they only got THREE candles each and no "comforts."

The above conditions were heavenly compared to what was found in the Tombstone Consolidated Mines around 1905:

Who would have thought flooding would be THE major problem with mining in the Tombstone Territory desert!?!  But that is exactly what forced the mining operations to close permanently.  In this particular instance, at the 1,000 foot level, even with giant pumps sucking seven MILLION gallons of water a day out of the mine, these miners were still working in knee deep water.  They never thirsted, however.  Notice the guy on the right is reaching out with his cup to catch a stream of water literally flooding into the mine.    In 1909, bad fuel ruined the boilers that operated the pumps and they along with the silver are still down in the mine somewhere under water.

By 1900, miners had transitioned from candles to carbide lanterns. Within the canister, water mixed with calcium carbide to produce acetylene gas.  The gas was ignited as it escaped out of the tiny hole in front creating a higher intensity light than candles could give off.  Small lamps were used on helmets, larger ones would light a whole area.

Electric lighting replaced candles and carbide by the 1930's in mines across the country - but by then mining was done for in the Tombstone area.

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